


Smoke Rings

by BB91



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Depression, Drinking, Drug Use, Eating Disorders, F/M, Sexual Assault, Sexual Content, Smoking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-20
Updated: 2017-02-22
Packaged: 2018-08-16 03:44:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8085727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BB91/pseuds/BB91
Summary: Lip Gallagher meets someone who makes him question everything he thought he knew.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a non-canon story in which Lip is in his 3rd year of college.   
> I wanted to do something fun and full of fluff. Hope everyone enjoys (:  
> xoxo

Phillip Gallagher was a lot of things; angry, bitter, funny, handsome, sarcastic, wildly charming, and a certified genius, but the one thing Phillip Gallagher wasn't, was boyfriend material.  
Well at least that's what he would tell you.  
He prided himself in his ability to keep everyone at arms length; his motto, "everyone leaves so why bother?" He had a gift for feeling just enough to keep the girl invested, but not enough to feel vulnerable. Other than family, he loved only the hot cigarette smoke swirling in his lungs and the hazy thoughts that came with his beer. Everything else were just temporary things to pass time. He was sweet and considerate, and if you made the list of people he gave a shit about, you could always count on him- but love and monogamy were concepts that he didn't believe in.  
That was until the day he ran into, literally ran into, Graceland Myers and she flipped his entire life upside down.


	2. Teenage Dream

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for giving this a chance! This is my first fic that I've posted and hope everyone likes it(:

"God damnit." Grace bent down to pick up a stack of papers full of notes that had fallen from her poetry text-book and scattered the white tile of the literature hall. It was Tuesday the 27th of October and it had to be the worst day she had had all semester, granted the semester only started a month ago, but this Tuesday was particularly shitty. It all started this morning when her alarm didn't go off so she woke up 20 minutes late and was forced to run to her people studies class in a pair of leggings she had worn the day before and fell asleep in paired with a maroon sweater off of her floor, no makeup and hair tied up in a messy bun. After running to class and making it with 2 minutes spare, she was forced to sit tired and hungry for two hours while her professor rambled on before getting back her last essay with a big red C+ circled at the top with a note saying that she's capable of better and to watch the rambling thoughts. With a sour mood and a frown to match, she made her way to her poetry class and grumbled through the answers her professor asked for. 

Once it was finally time to head back to her apartment for a few hours before her next class, she was positive that her day could only get better. That was until she lost grip on the thick textbook and sent all of her notes scattered everywhere. After she managed to gather up her papers and shoving them back into her book in a crinkled mess, she stood up and let out a frustrated sigh. That's when the shitty Tuesday on the 27th day of October became a day she'll always remember.

He was running down the hall, one hand on the strap of his backpack and the other running through his dirty blonde hair in a frenzy. He was moving too fast to stop by the time he noticed her, his feet sliding across the floor as he collided into her, sending her tumbling backwards, her papers once again flying everywhere. 

"Fuck, I'm so sorry!" He said loudly as she stared up at the ceiling and counted to ten trying to calm her racing heart and the flurry of cuss words that were threatening to fly out of her mouth in a machine gun like manner. 

"Are you okay?" His face came into view as he hovered over her, his blue eyes looking at hers with concern. They were gorgeous and clouded with secrets. And then the strangest thing happened when his stare caught hers, there was a wave of calm that washed over her; suddenly she didn’t feel like punching him his throat or calling him every name in the book. Her racing heart began to slow to its normal pace and the throbbing in her skull dulled to a minor ache as she scanned her eyes over him. He had a cigarette tucked behind his left ear and his hair was messed up in a effortlessly cool way, his pink lips were pulled down in a frown as his hand came up and swept the stray pieces of her dark hair from her face. "Please say something." He whispered anxiously. 

"I'm okay." She whispered back as she laid there staring at him like she was trying to memorize every freckle that decorated his nose.

And then he was gone just as quickly as he had appeared. Standing to his feet, he offered her his hand. "Let me help you." He laced his hand in hers and pulled her upright, his hands on her shoulders to steady her on her wobbly feet. "Are you sure you're okay?" He ducked down so that he could catch her stare again. "I didn't see you, I'm late to class and wasn't paying attention." 

All she could think of was how cute he looked when he was staring at her with wide eyes, cheeks red and his breathing heavy. 

Grace nodded her head in hopes of clearing the fog. "I'm good, promise." She said bending down to collect her things once again. 

"You're going to be even later if you don't go." She said as he bent down and began to help her, their hands brushing briefly as they went for the same piece notebook paper that was cluttered with notes and doodles; her entire body buzzed from the contact, like she had just been stuck by lightning. She pulled back her hand like it was sitting on and hot stove and clutched the chain of her necklace like it was her lifeline. She had never felt anything like it and the sensation left her breathless.

"It's fine." He spoke surely as he gathered the rest of her notes before standing to his feet. "Where are you headed?" He asked, staring at Grace who was still kneeling on the hard tile.

"Home, I have a few hours before my next class." She stood upright, the heavy bag in hand. 

He reached out and took the backpack from her hands, unzipping it before placing the heavy book and notes inside before zipping it back closed and slung it over the shoulder that wasn’t holding up his own as Grace watched him silently. "Let me walk you." 

She arched an eyebrow in his direction confused at his kindness. "You don't have to, you need to get to class." She pointed in the direction he had been racing in. The hallway clear of students who had already made it to their destination. 

"I want to," he smiled, "it's the least I can do for almost giving you a concussion."

He was gorgeous when he smiled. 

She nodded her head, finally agreeing to it before leading the way out of the building.

"I'm Lip by the way." He said a few minutes into their walk before putting the cigarette between his lips and lighting it.

"Lip?" She asked as the cloud of white smoke swirled around them in the wind. 

He nodded, "Phillip, Lip for short." He took another long drag. 

"Oh, makes sense." She crossed her arms across her chest trying to keep the frosty air at bay. In her hurried state that morning she had not only forgotten to grab a snack but also a jacket. 

"And you are?" He asked as he readjusted the strap of her bag in his shoulder, the cigarette hanging loosely in his lips. Making his look more intriguing than she thought was ever possible. 

"Graceland, Grace for short." She supplied as they turned down the sidewalk that would bring them to her building. 

"Graceland, like as in where Elvis died?" It was the regular response to her name. 

"Yep." She said popping the 'p'.

"I like it," he finished off the cigarette before flicking it across the lawn. "It's pretty."

Grace wouldn't classify herself as shy or someone who blushed easily, but here she was blushing at a simple comment about her name from a boy she had just met. 

Pathetic. She rolled her eyes at herself whenever she was sure that he wasn't watching her. 

The rest of the way across campus was silent until they reached the entrance to her building.  
"I really appreciate you walking me back, I know that you had class." She stopped, her hand in the door handle; her navy eyes looking back into his sky blue ones.  
He smiled at her and she could have sworn she felt her heart skip a beat.  
"It's really not that big of a deal, you were more important." He reached his hand towards the door and knocked hers away before pulling it open. "Let me walk you up so I don't spend the rest of my life wondering if you collapsed on the stairs from brain damage because I knocked you against the tile in the fucking literature hall." 

Grace laughed; it was a genuine laugh and it warmed her whole body. She wasn't sure why she found the image of her lying dead in the stairway so funny, but it made her forget about how shitty her day had been up to that point. 

Lip was standing there watching her, eyebrows raised and a smirk etched on his lips. "You find the idea of dying in the stairs from a head wound to be funny?" 

She just shrugged her shoulders, her laughter dying down. "Today has been shitty, I don’t know." She turned and stepped into the building, Lip not far behind her as she started the climb up the three flights of stairs. 

"I'm sorry if I made it shittier." He said from behind her as he kept pace with her. She couldn't help but wonder if her ass looked good in the leggings she was wearing and hoped that climbing the stairs a hundred times a day helped make it look perky. 

"You apologize a lot." She commented, turning her head so she could glance at him over her shoulder. His eyes flew up to meet hers making it obvious that he had indeed been looking at her ass. 

"I don't normally." He responded as the started up the last set of stairs. "Just feel like you deserve me to apologize for fucking up your day." 

She smiled, her heart swelling two sizes. She wasn't use to boys being kind or apologetic. The ones that she had the misfortune of knowing had the tendency of being complete fucking twats. It was refreshing to meet one with an ounce of consideration. 

"You didn't." She said once they were at her front door. "Fuck up my day, I mean." Her hands reached to unzip the front pocket of her backpack that was still resting on his shoulder and pulled out her key ring. "It started fucked up because I was up all night studying for an exam and forgot to charge my phone so it died of course and my alarm didn't go off so I was late." She said all of this as she pushed her door open and stepped into her apartment and flipped the living room light on. "You were just the cheery on top of my day." She turned to smile at him, only to find him standing in the door way looking unsure.  
"You can come in you know, Lip." She didn't want him to leave. He was the first guy she felt comfortable enough around since last year. In fact if memory served her correctly, Lip was the first boy she was alone with since the incident a little over a year ago. She wasn't sure why, but she felt safe and at ease in his presence. And maybe she was being naive and reckless, but she never let her fear creep itself into her brain. She had met him less than an hour ago, but felt like she could trust him. And that made her want to know more about him, but this was the real world of college where most students didn't have time to stop and get to know each other.  
"Unless you have to go, I get it I already made you skip one class I don't want to keep you from anything else." She started back towards the door prepared to take her bag from him and say her goodbyes, but before she could Lip stepped into the apartment and shut the door.

"I have some time to spare actually." He made his way to the couch and set both of their bags down.

"Cool." She said as she made her way to the kitchen trying to hide her excitement. "Want something to eat or drink?" She opened the fridge in search of something to tame the growls that were coming from her belly. She didn't normally feel comfortable enough to eat in front of people, but Lip was once again an exception. She never felt the nervous twitch as she pulled out the milk and set it on the counter and her fingers didn't tremble as she grabbed the box of Apple Jacks from the pantry. "I have cereal." She leaned over the bar after she grabbed a white bowel from the cabinet. 

"Yeah, that sounds good." He stepped into the kitchen and stood next to her as she reached up and grabbed another bowel identical to her own and set it down in front of him. "Nice place by the way." Lip poured his bowel full of the sugary cereal before trading it with the milk.

Grace had already started to make her way back into the living room, sitting down on the floor next to her coffee table before responding. "Thank you, it's nice to have privacy." She ate a spoon full of her lunch before continuing. "Are you on campus?" 

Lip had sat down on the other side of the coffee table in front of her with his legs stretched out underneath much like hers were, their legs touching, sending that familiar zip up Grace's spine. She wondered if the same zip of electricity was racing up his spine and the same time. 

"Yeah, the Baylor Building." He said before scooping more cereal into his mouth, a bit of milk dribbling down his chin briefly before he brought his arm up and wiped it away with the sleeve of his long sleeve black t-shirt. 

Adorable.

The Baylor Building was known for its wild Friday night parties and many of the girls in her classes were often heard whispering about their walk of shame out of the busy dorm building. She wondered if any of them were sneaking from Lip's bed.  
"Wow, party building." She laughed and leaned back against the couch behind her, suddenly more interested in him than her Apple Jacks. "I hear that it's almost as loud and crazy as a Frat house."

He nodded his head as finished chewing the mouth full he had before responding. "Doesn't bother me, I'm use to chaos."  
He said it so nonchalantly, that Grace believed that he was being serious and not trying to look cool and unfazed by the noise. 

"Really? It doesn't distract you from studying?" Grace asked. 

Lip leaned backwards resting against his outstretched arms as he peered over at her. "Not really, I have headphones that I wear so it's kinda muffled." His tongue dipped out of his mouth to wet his lips and Grace felt her breath hitch and her lips parted as she took in the sight before her. He was good looking in the way that was just so effortless and a bit messy. Just by looking at him she knew that he could get her into trouble and she would love every minute of it as long as she got to touch him.  
"Plus, I have five siblings in a 4 bedroom house I'm used to the noise." His laugh pulled her back to reality. 

Grace was an only child so she couldn't imagine having 5 other people sharing her space. "I suppose there was never a dull moment growing up."

She watched as his hand dove into the pocket of his jeans and he reveled a pack of cigarettes. "You can say that." He said holding up the pack. "Do you mind or should I go outside?"

Grace wasn't and smoker, except for the occasional spliff, but it was cold outside and she wasn't ready to stop listening to the way his voice sounded so she reached into the table that sat next to her tan couch and pulled out an ashtray and said the only thing that made sense.  
"Go ahead, I don't mind."


	3. What a Feeling

Lip placed the cigarette between his lips and pulled an orange lighter out of his of his pocket and lit it in one quick move. Grace watched him take in a long drag, like it was his oxygen and he had been without it for too long; holding it in his lungs for a long moment while his eyes searched hers. They sat still, watching each other while their silence filled the air as the white smoke escaped Lip's lungs and filled the apartment swirling around and mixing with the pumpkin scented candle she had lit on the bar when they were in the kitchen getting food. There was a shift in the atmosphere and Grace felt like she couldn't breathe under his stare. His presence took up every inch of her tiny apartment, leaving her to believe that she would never be able to be here without thinking of the way is eyes looked like the summer sky. 

She had boyfriends in the past and guys she fooled around with, but she had never in her life met someone who captivated her quite like Lip did. She had never been in love or felt the need to breathe in someone so that she could memorize their scent so that when she was alone she could close her eyes and see them- but with Lip, she needed to know what made him who he was. His likes, dislikes dreams, hopes, fears, where he grew up and what his favorite color was. The simple things like how he takes his coffee and what side of the bed he slept on.  
She never believed in love at first sight, or in soulmates, but from the moment she hit the tile floor and his face appeared above hers, she felt whole. It made no sense to her and sounded absolutely absurd, and she knew that it was highly probable that she was the only one feeling that way, but that didn’t stop the butterflies from fluttering in her stomach.  
‘It probably has everything to do with the fact that you cracked her head against the fucking floor.’ She thought to herself as her hand reached up to rub the spot on the back on her head softly. ‘Probably should call a doctor.’ 

"What are you majoring in?" His worlds pulled her back into the moment and the world started to spin again.   
She blinked her eyes trying to regain focus, "architectural design." The words came out sounding unsure. There was no way he didn't think she was insane. 

"Really?" His face lit up in intrigue. "You like tall buildings?"  
She wasn't surprised at his surprise. She was one of the few girls in the degree field, boys around campus had a hard time taking them serious. 

"Not just the tall ones." She smiled. "I love the process of creating something from nothing, building it from the ground up." She paused to take a breath. "I want to create something beautiful that will be here long after I'm gone. A place that people can look up at and admire." Her heart always quickened when she talked about her passion for buildings. "Most of the world walk past, works in, or goes to school in these gorgeous buildings every day, and I love that I can potentially create something that is important to someone or to a city." She shrugged her shoulders and looked down at her hands slightly embarrassed of her rambling. 

"That's awesome," Lip spoke from across her, "a little conceited wanting to have everyone look at your art, but amazing nonetheless." She looked up at him in time to catch his playful smirk. "But really, that's a great way to feel, nothing great just appears, it has to be brought to life by hard work and passion."   
Her cheeks hurt from smiling so much, she was happy that he understood and had the same thought about creating something as she did. Outside of the people in her classes, people thought it was odd that she wanted to design buildings and not be a doctor like her mother or in. Or if you were like her mother, you would of thought she would end up as an actress because she had a knack for the dramatics. And maybe that would have been the case if her grandmother wouldn’t have taken her to Paris for her 10th birthday. Ever since that week abroad, she knew that she would one day create something as beautiful as the buildings she saw in that gorgeous city.

"How about you?" She snapped her fingers and continued before he had a chance to get anything out. "No, let me guess."

Lip laughed and sat up, his elbows on the coffee table. "Okay, go ahead." His blue eyes sparkled in the sunlight that was streaming through the blinds.

Grace watched him intently as she ran through the possibilities, but nothing about him gave her any clues, so she went ahead and took a leap. "Software design?" She said hopeful.

He shook his head, his lips never losing their smile. "You assume that I want to sit in front of a computer screen all day?"

"I don't know, I just guessed." Grace laughed and folded her legs and leaned forward on the table to match him.

"Actually, it's Aerospace Engineering." His hand raked through his messy hair. 

Grace didn't know why she didn't see it before, it was obvious that he was an engineer with the way he spoke and out creating things.  
"That was my second guess, obviously.”   
His laughter matched hers and for a moment everything outside of that apartment didn't exist.

"Speaking of, I have a physics test in an hour and a half so I better get back so I can study." He said once their laughter had stopped. 

Grace knew that she had her own class to prepare for and that she should just let him be on his way so that he could carry on with his life as normal, but she was selfish and wasn't quite ready to go back to life without his blue eyes.  
"I can help you," she stuttered her cheeks warm with a blush, "I mean if you want." She unfolded her legs and stood, tugging on the maroon sweater she was wearing.

Lip stood up and stretched out his muscles before he responded, leaving Grace in some kind of purgatory waiting for his answer.   
"Actually, that would be awesome." He stepped around her to grab his backpack from the couch and unzipped it. "I have flashcards, if you could run through them with me." He pulled out a stack of while cards that were decorated in questions and answers.

She happily took them from his hand and plopped down on the couch, her back pressed against the arm. "Let's get you an A." She smiled up at him.   
After moving their bags to the floor he took seat on the other end looking at her.  
"Okay, question one..."


	4. Running Wild

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your patience, this chapter was a little hard for me to get on paper for some reason, but the next one is one that I'm really looking forward to sharing with everyone. Hopefully it won't take quite as long to get up this time.

It had been four days since that day in the hallway where Lip ran into her and Grace would be lying if she said that she hadn't thought about him every day since. After they were finished running through his test questions, it was time for both of them to run to their next class, barely leaving Grace enough time to make it across campus. After they parted ways, Grace felt an unexplainable sadness wash over her and spent the rest of her day zoning out in class thinking of the smoke rings that swirled from his pink lips and floated above them. For the next three days she found herself leaving her poetry class later and later hoping to run into him, but always seemed to miss him, putting her is a sour mood for the rest of the week that seemed to never end.

"Grace, are you even listening?" Cecilia, Grace's best friend said through the phone followed up with an exasperated sigh.

"Yes Cece, I'm listening." Grace groaned and fell backwards on her bed with a flop. "You're trying to tell me the advantages of going to a frat house party on Halloween," she rubbed her face with the hand that wasn’t holding the phone, "and by the way, it's not working."  
Ever since dinner on Thursday night, Grace's best friend tried to convince her to go the annual Alpha Sigma Halloween party, but Grace failed to see the upside of spending the night out with a bunch of drunk guys who got too handsy while her best friends disappeared within an hour with their choice of man that night.

"I dropped the costume off this morning while you were at breakfast with your mom, it’s in your closet, get ready and meet us at the house in two hours." Cece said before hanging up the phone before Grace could protest.

"Ugh!' Grace groaned out of frustration. Her best friend meant well, she wanted nothing more than Grace to come out and have a good time, but what Cece failed to realize was that Grace would rather spend her Halloween night on her couch thinking about a pair of blue eyes that she couldn’t seem to shake from her memory.

After ten minutes of wallowing in her self-pity, Grace got up and took a shower.

 

\-----------^^^^--------------^^^^^^^-------------- ^^^^-----------

Grace was standing in front of her open closet staring at the same costume she had been staring at for the past ten minutes. She was a smart girl and she knew that staring at it, willing it to burst into flames, was a fantasy that wasn’t destined to come true. It wasn’t that the Sandy Olsson (from Grease) outfit wasn’t cute, a little cliché but still cute, it was a lack of enthusiasm that had her counting down the seconds to when she could come back home and change out of the leather pants that were hung up for her. She had showered, shaved, painted her face, and curled her hair- but now she was standing in her black robe trying to come up with a good enough excuse to back out.  
“Fucking Cece.” She muttered to no one realizing that there wasn’t getting out of it and grabbed the pants off of the hanger and began to mentally prepare herself for the struggle that would be pulling the tight material up her legs. 

She had just got the restricting pants half way up her left leg when there was a loud knock on her front door. The sudden noise and her lack of coordination, caused her to go tumbling backwards onto the carpeted floor. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” She said as she sat up looking down at the pants that were half way up her legs when there was another knock on the door. She knew that it wasn’t Cecilia or Sophia that were standing on the opposite side of the door; for one, they had keys and for two, they were too busy getting ready at the Sorority house and would be shooting vodka shots by the time she got there. So that left the question on who had caused her to get rug burn on her ass. 

By the time she had managed to pull the fucking pants off and toss them on the bed and pulled her robe back on the visitor had knocked again. Persistent fucker whoever it is, Grace thought as she leaned up on her tip toes to peer through the peep hole on the door. Staring back at her were eyes bluer than the clearest of waters and her mouth went dry. She had just finally came to the realization that she would probably never see him again, and here he was on the other side of her door at 8Pm on Halloween night.

"Lip, hi." She swung the door open quicker than necessary and winced when it ended up slamming into the wall.

He was standing there with his hands shoved into his pockets looking at her with tired eyes.  
"Hey." He cleared his throat. "Sorry to just stop by, but I wanted to show you this." He reached around and grabbed a folded piece of paper from his back pocket.

Grace took it from his hand and opened it up to see that it was a test with 98% circled at the top in red; a smile spreading across her wine colored lips.

"I passed that test you helped me study for and I didn't get your number when I was here, but I wanted to show you since I kinda figured that I owe it to you.”

Grace looked up from the paper at him proudly. "That's awesome, congratulations." 

He nodded and took the paper from Grace’s hand and put it back into his pocket. "And um, I figured that maybe we can do it regularly." He reached up to rub the back of his neck. “Study I mean.” He followed quickly.

Grace always had a tendency to be awkward around the boys she thought were cute, so it took everything in her to just nod her head instead risking opening her mouth to let something ridiculously stupid spill out.

"Cool." He wet his lips. "Sorry if I interrupted you getting ready." He signaled at her half-dressed appearance, changing the subject. "Going to a Halloween party?" 

She looked down at her robe, cheeks warming as the blush creeped up her skin.  
"Supposed to be, but I'm trying to find a way to get out of it." She sighed softly looking back at him. 

"Why, not into parties?" He asked leaning against the frame, his hands going back into his pockets.

"It's not that- here come in." She stepped to the side to allow room for him to step into the warm apartment. "It's just that my friends always seem to disappear with random guys right when we get there and I'm left alone to fend up the drunk assholes." She shut the door after him.

He sat down on the edge of the couch. "That's fucked up, but not surprising, parties tend to be more of a mating ritual than anything."

"Yeah I know, I just don't feel like dealing with it tonight.” She sat down on the couch next to him, her hands folding in her lap.

“Stay home then, it’s getting cold out there anyway.”

The Fall time chill was coming through Chicago a little early this year and Grace seemed to be the only person ready for the cold weather.

“I have to at least make an appearance, my best friend bought me a costume and practically begged me to come out tonight, I’ve been so busy with class and you’re the only person I’ve actually talked to besides classmates and professors.” 

"Well, I can go with you." He said looking at her.

"Really?" She asked skeptically, turning her body towards him. “You want to go to a Halloween party at a Frat house with me?”

"Yeah, and I promise not to disappear with a random guy." He smirked and took the cigarette from behind his ear and put it between his lips. "I don't have a costume though." He said before lighting it.

"It's okay, everyone will be too drunk to notice that you’re the only one not dressed up.” She said standing up from the couch and walking into her bedroom. “I can skip the costume and wear something normal if you want.” She spoke loud enough for him to hear as she started to shift through other options. She was no longer dreading going to the party, now she was actually looking forward to a night out and having a couple of drinks; knowing that Lip would be there made her anxiety float away. 

There was a soft knock on the door frame and Grace poked her head around the closet door. “Dress up, I don’t mind being odd man out, I’m actually use to it.” He blew out the smoke that he was holding in his lungs, filling her air with the smell of nicotine. 

She smiled at him before stepping back into the closet to retrieve the top and jacket that matched the pants, setting them on the bed with the earlier discarded pants. 

"What Frat?" Lip was leaning in her bedroom door, his hands back in his pockets, the cigarette close to being gone.

"It's the Alpha Sigma party." She responded.

"A bunch of frat dicks, should be fun." Lip said backing out of the room, a smile on his mouth.

“Don’t forget the free booze.” Grace laughed as she watched him put his hand on the doorknob. “Plus, they have the best jello shots at their parties; my two favorite things; booze and dessert.” 

Lip laughed as he shut her bedroom door to give her privacy to change into the outfit that was most likely going to be the most uncomfortable thing she had worn since her middle school dance when she squeezed her size 10 ass into a size 6 dress. It didn’t matter though, adrenaline rushed through her veins as she pulled the pants up her legs and her cheeks stared to hurt from smiling as she pulled the black crop top over her head. She was uncharacteristically excited to being out to a party that night. Something about Lip being there made her feel incredibly excited. 

Less than a week in her life and he had already began to shift her entire universe.


	5. Light with a Sharpened Edge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm terrible, I know! It took entirely too long to get this chapter out, but the dialog was killing me! I'm sorry if it feels rushed, I promise the next chapter will be better! The next one is half finished and then the chapter AFTER that is already complete! Thank you all who are reading and enjoying, you all are simply the best!

I’ll just meet you at the party  
Grace sent off the text message to Cece and grabbed the leather jacket off of her bed and stepped out of the bedroom. Lip was sitting on her couch, a cigarette between his lips studying something on his cellphone.  
“Want to grab something to eat before we go?” He looked up from the phone in his hands once he felt her presence in the room. “I don’t drink on an empty stomach.” He exhaled the smoke from his lungs and ashes into the ashtray in front of him on the coffee table.  
Grace put the jacket over the back of the bar stool and went to sit next to Lip on the couch, her knee-high leather boots in hand. “Yeah, that sounds good,” She nodded and started to push her left foot into boot. “I’m starving.” She zipped the shoe up before repeating the process on the right side.  
He finished off his cigarette and put it out in the ashtray and stood to his feet. “I know this pizza place right off campus we can go to.” He watched her stand from the couch, her body close to his as her eyes sparkled underneath the black liner that winged her eyes.  
“You mean Johnny’s?” Her voice was soft and if he wouldn’t have been standing so close he probably wouldn’t have heard the words. Grace felt the electric pull between them, begging her to step closer and run her hand through his hair, but she fought against it. She didn’t want to take a risk and end up scaring him off and hurting herself in the process. For now she would just enjoy the way he smelled and the way his body radiated warmth.  
“Yeah, you know it?” He asked as he stepped away from her and retrieved her leather jacket from the stool and held it up for her.  
She let him slip the jacket up her arms, gathering her hair up and pulling it from inside. “It’s my favorite place to get pizza.” She slid her cell phone into the pocket of the jacket and zipped the zipper closed.  
A smile spread across Lip’s mouth. “No shit.” They started walking towards the front door, his hand on the small of her back.  
They stepped out into the hallway, Grace locking the door behind them before slipping the key into her bra for safe keeping. “No shit.”

\-------------- 

They ate their pepperoni pizza as they talked about the professors that they hated and the classes that they looked forward to every week. Lip was funny and kept Grace laughing the entire time that they were in busy restaurant and by the time they were finished and stepping out onto the sidewalk, her sides ached and her cheeks were sore. He was genuine and smart and made her smile brighter than anyone. They talked about her friends that had insisted that she attend the party. She didn’t care if they made it to the party, just being there with him in that old hole in the wall pizzeria was more than enough.  
Grace didn’t look twice when Lip took the cigarette out from behind his ear and placed it between his lips. His dedication to nicotine had been noted from the first five minutes of knowing him and now it was just part of who he was.  
Lip spoke as the puff of smoke filled the space between them. “You know you don’t look like the girl from Grease,” he studied her face, “you have a darker feel.”  
Grace knew that she didn’t look like the traditional Sandy costume, but she couldn’t help that her best friend seemed to have forgotten that she had black hair and not blonde.  
“Yeah, I didn’t pick it out.” She huffed. “My best friend thought that I could pull this look off for some reason.”  
Lip’s eyes scanned the area for a second before landing on a shop across the road from Johnny’s Pizzeria and a smile spread across his face. “Let’s go.” His hand fell to the small of her back as he ushered her across the semi-busy street to the Halloween shop that was tucked in between a shoe repair and a dry cleaning service. Grace hurried across the road, her heels clanking loudly across the pavement as they stepped onto the sidewalk. The store wasn’t as busy as you would expect it to be on the evening of Halloween, only a few customers sorting through what was left in stock.  
After a few moments of searching, Lip stopped and picked something up. “This works.” He held up a pack of fangs that would slip onto her canines and a tube of fake blood. “A couple of years ago my brother dressed up as a vampire and found these press on tattoos that looked like bite marks.” Lip said out loud, not looking up at her as he continued to search the selves.  
After following him around the store for five minutes, Grace was standing at the counter as the cashier rang up the items Lip had procured; a pair of fangs, fake blood, the tattoos in question, and white contacts. After she paid, Grace and Lip stepped into the tiny restroom that was meant for associates only, but the cashier was tired and not really in a mood to argue with the Lip’s charm.  
“Put these in while I tattoo myself.” Lip handed her the contacts and fangs before studying the instructions on the temporary tattoos.  
After she had poked her eye a couple times, Grace finally got the contacts in before moving on to the fangs.  
“A vampire suits you a lot better I think.” Lip said looking at her face while his hand was pressed to his neck letting the tattoo set. “You’re gorgeous and mysterious.”  
Grace flushed a deep shade of crimson that caused Lip to smile at her brightly. “Not really that mysterious.” She responded, the words coming out sounding funny around the fangs. Grace knew that underneath the leather jacket her skin was painted a pretty pink color, his words waking up the butterflies that rested in her stomach.  
Lip took the fake blood from the plastic bag and twisted off the top. “You’re mysterious to me.” He tilted the bottle down his neck, letting the thick liquid drip down his neck and onto the top of his grey Henley that he was wearing before smearing it around the fake tattoo. Grace watched as it made its way down his skin, lips parted and pupils’ dilated. Grace hadn’t been attracted to someone in a very long time, and being around Lip sent her libido into overdrive. It didn’t matter what he was doing, she found him irresistible.  
“Your turn.” He brought the bottle up to her mouth and let it flow down from the corner of her lips and down her chin and neck.  
“One more thing.” He threw the bottle of blood into plastic bag that sat in the sink and then brought his fingers up to her hair, pulling out the bobby pins that had been placed to keep to hair pulled back from her face. He smiled at her as her dark waves fell free and fanned out around her face. “Perfect.” He smiled at her.  
Grace took in her appearance in the tiny smudged mirror that hung above the dirty sink. She looked entirely different than she did when she had left the house. Her normal navy colored eyes were masked with the scary white contacts and the blood that now stained wine colored lips made her look like a villain. She looked sexy as hell and it made her feel like that she was capable of concurring the world. She turned to look at Lip with a huge smile. “This is so much better.” She brought a finger up and smeared the blood that was on his neck making it look messy. “Thank you for this.”  
“For what?”  
She stepped closer him. “For this great idea.” She set a steady hand on his chest and leaned in to press a kiss to his cheek, leaving behind a faint lip print. “Oops.” She laughed and brought her thumb up to wipe it away, but before she could Lip brought up his hand and wrapped his fingers around her wrist gently stopping her. “Leave it, it adds to the effect.”  
It was like all of the air had been sucked out of the room and the world had stopped spinning as they stood there silently, her wrist in his hand as they stared at each other. She wanted to be brave enough to kiss him, but she was nervous of being rejected so she stood there praying to all the Gods that he would lean in and press his lips to hers.  
“We’re going to be late.” He whispered, still not breaking eye contact.  
She felt herself nod. “Probably.” The words came out in a lisp around the plastic fangs breaking their trance and causing them both to laugh.  
“We should get going,” Grace said through her giggles, stepping away from him.  
Lip cleared his throat and ran a hand through his already messy hair. “Yeah, let’s go get some of those jello shots you can’t stop talking about.” His lips still turned up in a smile as he pulled open the bathroom door, moving to the side to allow Grace to step out first.


	6. In The Lonely Hour

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you sooo much for your patience!   
> xoxoxo

People spilled out of the large house onto the front lawn and the sidewalk. Grace could feel the vibrations of the heavy bass before they even made their way up the front steps. Grace looked around the crowded pace and suddenly was feeling unsure; it had been so long since she had went out to a party and socialized with the people who witnessed the downfall two years ago and the thought of facing them again made her a little woozy. Grace was busy counting the ways that she could escape without being seen when she felt the weight of Lip's hand on her back.

"Everything okay?" His lips were at her ear, spreading warmth throughout her entire body making her feel as if she was laying out in the sun soaking up its rays. 

Grace twisted her head so that she could look up at him, catching his icy blue gaze. "Yeah, everything's good." Grace nodded and smiled as genuinely as she could muster. 

A crease formed between his eyes as he looked down at her unconvinced.  
Grace like to think that she wasn't that easily figured out, but Lip had seemed to be able to see through her lie with ease.  
"We can so something else." He said it casually and paired it with a shrug. It made her feel okay with backing out, like he wouldn't ask too many questions or be upset that she had dragged him across campus when he could of easily been with someone who wouldn't of wasted his time. And for a brief second Grace considered taking advantage of the out he had offered her, but ultimately decided that she wouldn't be able to move on if she didn't face this fear. So with a firm shake of her head, she straighten her back and held her head high. "Let's just go in and make and appearance, if it's lame we'll leave." 

She started to make her way through the front door, Lip hot on her heels. There were so many people there, Grace couldn't help but to wonder how they all fit. Wall to wall people were standing about, drinks in hand and laughing. She pushed through the hordes of students in search of the bar. There were only a couple of students who stopped what they were doing to stare at her. In their defense, Grace hadn't been seen out at a party since freshman year, so seeing her now was a little startling to those who knew why she spent her weekends at home.   
Grace finally made it to the backyard where the fraternity had set up the long bar with three different hired bartenders quickly mixing drinks and popping tops off of beers.  
"What's your poison?" She turned to ask Lip, but he wasn't there. She felt the panic start to flood her chest as her eyes searched frantically over the crowd desperately looking for those blue eyes that she knew could calm her racing heart, but before she let the anxious thoughts completely consume her, Lip came pushing through the people so that he was standing in front of her.

"I ran into someone from class and you didn't hear me when I tried to get your attention, but I figured I would find you by the jello shots." He smiled at her.

Grace's breathing started to return to normal and she tried to hide her flushed cheeks behind her dark hair; she didn't want him to see that she almost fell apart because the stranger she came with had disappeared. 

"It's all good." She turned back to the bartender. "Two jello shots, a whiskey sour, and whatever he's having." Grace looked over her shoulder at Lip, who was watching her intently. 

"Let me just get a beer." He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her to him as the tall bartender turned to make her drink. "I won't lose you again, promise." The fingers on his free hand came up and pushed her hair off of her neck so that he could speak softly in her ear. 

It felt like Grace had been electrocuted, tiny sparks danced underneath her skin, zipping through her veins. She looked up at him, dragging her painted bottom lip through her teeth. He was gorgeous and the sight of him under the cheap twinkling lights took her breath away. Once again she found herself fighting the urge to touch him. 

Lip picked up the tiny cups filled with the bright blue booze infused jello and popped off the tops. "Happy Halloween Grace." His lips were pulled up in the attractive smile Grace had grown use to in their very short friendship. 

She swirled her finger around the rim so to loosen the jello before bringing it up her lips and tilting her head back so all of the jello flowed down easily.  
"See, the best jello shots in Chicago." She smirked at Lip as he finished his soon after her.

He tossed his cup in the nearby trash can then grabbed hers from her fingers before repeating the action. "You do know your jello shots Graceland." He wrapped his hand around his beer bottle.   
Normally Grace didn't like anyone using her full name besides her parents, but there was something about the way it fell past his lips that made her shiver.   
The pair of them found a vacant table not far from the bar, and spent the next hour laughing and drinking. 

It was nice to just be invisible with Lip, Grace thought and the once anxious thoughts that had plagued her were long forgotten. Lip had the gift of making her laugh so hard her sides ached and her cheeks burned from smiling too much. He told her about his five siblings and his closet friends V and Kevin. He told her a hilarious stories about the people he loved and the craziness that was his life. By the time the people Grace was there to see, she had downed three whiskey sours and four jello shots, completely oblivious to the fact that she had come there with a purpose, she was warm and happy and would of been happy to just listen to Lip's voice for the rest of the night, but all great things come to an end.   
Right as Lip was getting to the end of the story of the time his younger sister, Debbie, took a baby, Grace's friends approached the table.

"I've been trying to get ahold of you for hours, I thought you were blowing us off." Cece didn't look happy as she stood in front of them, hands on her hips. Her fairy costume made it hard for Grace to take her serious though. 

"How long have you been here?" Grace's sailor friend, also known as Sophia, had an expression that mirrored Cece's. Neither one of them acknowledged Lip who was sitting next to Grace smoking a cigarette. Throughout the night, their chairs inched closed to each other until they were sitting so close that their legs were touching and they were facing each other. 

"We got here a little while ago, I didn't see you so we came back here for a drink," Grace said, lying about looking for them, "and I didn't hear my phone." She shrugged her shoulders, looking up at the girls who appeared to had just noticed Lip sitting there.   
"This is-" Grave started to introduce him to her friends when Sophia cut her off.

"Lip Gallagher." She said it with venom dripping off every letter.

Lip exhaled, surrounding them with the white puff of smoke. "Do we know each other?"

Grace looked between her friend and the guy she was falling for and she hoped with everything in her that Lip wasn't one of Sophia's conquest. 

"We haven't formally met, but you know a girl that was in our sorority, Amanda, the two of you dated before you cheated with your professor." Sophia crossed her arms over her chest and stared him down. Grace looked at Cece in time to watch her face as she realized what Sophia was going on about.

"First off, we didn't date, second off, that's none of your business, and finally, she was bat shit crazy." Lip held his fingers up as he listed his argument before taking another long drag from his cigarette completely unfazed by the way Sophia's face turned red and she took in a breath, gearing up for one of her famous rants. 

Grace jumped to her feet and stood between Lip and her friends, frowning at them. "Seriously, Soph, that has nothing to do with you." Grace huffed, mad that her words not only came out a tad slurred, but also in a lisp because of the fangs. "You don't know Lip, and if you're taking about who I think you're talking about, you were the one who told me that she was a loon." 

Sophia opened and then closed her mouth, realizing that she had no argument. "I'm need a drink." She grumbled before turning to leave. Grace knew that she would have to bake Sophia her favorite cookies and tell her how much she loved her until she finally forgave her, but for the night she couldn’t care less that her best friend was having a fit.

"Be careful Gracie," Cece wrapped her arms around Grace's waist and pulled her close, "promise me." She urged her.

"I promise Cece, everything is fine and I'll be okay." Grace kissed her cheek as they let go of each other. 

"That's not the costume I picked out for you." Cece said over the music as she backed away from where Lip and Grace had taken up as their own.

Grace just smirked at her before taking her seat in front of Lip.  
"I'm sorry about them." Grace picked up her now watered down drink and took a sip.

Lip shook his head, "don't, it's my fault."   
There was a pregnant pause, the two of them unsure on where to go from there.   
"Stay here, I'll be right back." Lip said suddenly, getting to his feet.  
Grace watched him make his way over to the bartender. They spoke for a long moment before Lip reached into his pocket and pulled something out and handed it across the counter. A few moments later Lip sat back down, a full bottle of whiskey and three shot glasses in hand. 

"How did you manage to procure these?" Graced beamed at him as he twisted the top off the bottle.

"My charm." Lip leaned to the side and dug into his pocket before laying a quarter on the table. "And twenty dollars and a joint."

Grace laughed as he filled both glasses with the brown liquid. "You up for a game of quarters?" He asked her hopeful. 

Grace picked up the quarter and bounced it off the table sending in flying into the empty shot glass. "Only if you tell me more about yourself." She smiled proudly, and he stared at her in awe.

"Right," he stumbled for a moment, "I guess I underestimated your skills." He picked up his shot glass and threw it back. 

The game went on for a while, Lip sharing small details of his life, tiny tidbits of who he was.   
They were well past drunk when Grace made yet another successful shot.

"I went to rehab last year." Lip started slowly, aiming his quarter. "I had a breakdown and was turning into my father." His quarter bounced off the rim. "It started small, a few drinks here and there, and then somewhere it just got all fucked up." He leaned back in his chair, his eyes on Grace's fingers as she picked up the quarter. It was her turn, but she couldn't pull her eyes away from Lip. He has shared a lot of personal stories and facts, but this was going into deeper territory than they've ever adventured.  
"I fell in love with my professor, and as smart as I am I couldn't see that I was fucking up." He grabbed the quarter from Grace's fingers and took another shot, this time the quarter went in with a clank. "And then Amanda found out and got jealous." Grace could see the memory behind his eyes as he tried to figure out if he should share this with her. "She found a picture of her on my phone and sent it out to everyone, it blew up and there was a hearing. Helene stopped talking to me, transferred, and the one man I thought I could count on didn't give a shit." Grace frowned at him as he continued. "Anyway, shit got really bad before that man who I was convinced didn’t give a shit stepped in and got me into rehab." Lip pushed his full shot glass away, his eyes coming up to meet Grace's. "I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him.”  
Something told Grace that he wasn’t just talking about school.

After a few moments of silence between them, Lip stood up and offered his hand to Grace. "We need food."

Grace took his hand and let him lead her through the people who were still going strong and out through the house.  
On their walk, Lip filled in the dirty details of who the professor he loved was and the man who saved his life.

As they walked hand in hand down the sidewalk, Grace couldn't help but to think that she would happily follow him anywhere, and that was terrifying but also electrifying.


	7. For Your Eyes Only

The pair walked stepped into the warm glow of Patsy’s Pies and were instantly greeted by a pretty and slender women with brown hair. “Lip, what are you doing here?” The women wrapped her arms around Lip and held him tightly to her for a few moments. There was no doubt that the two were close by the way they clung to each other. 

“Just left a party and I wanted to introduce her to Patsy’s famous French fries.” Lip said pulling away from her and glancing over his shoulder at Grace. The women followed Lip’s gaze and her stare set on Grace briefly. “What are you doing here, weren’t you supposed to be off seven hours ago?” He asked grabbing her attention once again.

“Yeah, but one of my girls called in and it’s Halloween and no one wanted to come in and plus, tips are good on nights like these.” She responded.

Grace stood behind Lip, her hands tucked into the pockets of her leather jacket and her eyes scanned the room. Almost every table was full. Groups of people dressed in costumes laughing and shoving pie and burgers into their mouths. 

“This is Grace.” The sound of her name coming from Lip’s mouth yanked her back to the moment and she offered a smile at the women that had greeted them and offered her hand. 

“Hi, I’m Fiona, Lip’s sister.” Fiona shook her hand, a bright smile on her lips. 

“Nice to meet you.”

“You too,” Fiona reached behind her and grabbed two menus. “Sit wherever you want and I’ll grab some coffee.” She handed the menus off to Lip and stepped around the counter.

Grace followed Lip to a booth that was tucked in the back corner, sliding in across from him.

Fiona brought over two mugs of steaming coffee and two glasses of water before taking the order from Lip; a large thing of French fries and two slices of cherry pie. Perfect food for two tipsy people out on a chilly Halloween night.

“Sorry for dumping all of my fucked up shit on you earlier.” Lip said fiddling with the straw that was sitting in the cup of water.

Grace frowned deeply at him. “Nothing to apologize for Lip.” She paused for effect. “Everyone is fucked up, some people just wear it on their sleeve and own it, and then there are people who bury it deep within their bones and never speak of it.” Grace’s eyes flicked down at the table as she swallowed the lump in her throat. 

After a moment of silence Lip finally spoke. “So what kind of person are you?”

Grace looked up at his face and weighed the option. Letting him in to see the dark corners of her mind could cause him to look at her like she was defected and disappear, but Grace was tired of hiding away behind her walls and never letting anyone see the real person that she was. After Fiona came back around and set down the plate of fries and pie, Grace began to tell her story.

"When I was younger I was kinda chunky and the kids in grade school made fun of me and the boys didn't want anything to do with me." Grace popped at French fry in her mouth. "As a young girl I of course wanted to be pretty and thin, so being called fat in the lunch room your freshman year of high school wasn't exactly ideal." She paused, swallowing the delicious food her eyes stinging from the memories. She was staring at the mound of fries, she couldn't bring herself to look at Lip; she didn't want him to see her cracking under the weight of her past. "It started out minor, just skipping a meal here and there, nothing life threating." She could feel the heat of Lip's eyes on her face, but he said nothing as she continued to spill her secrets. "This went on for about a year until I confessed everything to my grandmother" Grace's voice cracked at the mention of her nana causing her to wince and close her eyes tightly, saying a silent prayer that she could keep it together. "My grandmother was my best friend in the entire world, there was no one on this planet that I trusted more. She's the reason I am who I am today. When I was 9 years old me and Cece stuck behind my parents back and watched Moulin Rouge and fell in love, it's all we talked about." Grace laughed at the memory. "So for my tenth birthday my grandma took Cece and I to Paris and it was on that trip that I fell in love with architectural design. On the flight home I leaned over and told my grandma that one day I would create something as beautiful as the buildings we had saw." She grabbed the sugar and poured a large amount into the still piping hot coffee. "Anyway, when I was 14, I fainted in class and my grandma picked me up, they all told her that it was because I hadn't eaten breakfast that morning, but the moment I looked at her face I knew that I couldn't lie anymore, so I confessed everything." Grace took a tentative sip. "She wasn't mad or disappointed in me, she just said we're going to get you some help and you'll move in with me." Grace quoted her grandmother, grabbing another French fry before dragging it through the ketchup that Lip had poured out on the edge of the plate. "So I started treatment and got better.” There was a pregnant pause before Grace found the courage to continue. “When I was 16 she died of a heart attack in her sleep." The memory of finding her grandma dead in her bed flashed through her mind and she had to squeeze her eyes shut and count to ten to keep herself from being sick all over herself and Lip. It would be easy to say that that day didn’t haunt Grace’s dreams or the lights of the ambulance didn’t flash beneath her eyelids whenever she would close her eyes, but it wouldn’t be the truth. Grace had carried that grief with her for five years and would probably carry its weight for the rest of her life. "That was the second time I relapsed," Grace said once the nausea subsided, opening her eyes slowly. "Everyone was trying to get me to talk to my sponsor and attend grief counseling, but all I wanted was to find some control in my life. It all felt like the world was spinning out of control and I couldn't grab ahold of anything to keep me grounded, so I ran head first into my disease. I started to drink my meals, and hid myself away behind the doors of my grandmother's house, hanging over the toilet with my finger down my throat." Her eyes lifted to meet his for the first time since she began to talk. She was prepared to be met with a sympathetic frown and eyes full of disapproval of how she handled things in her past, but instead was surprised to see that Lip was watching her carefully as he listened carefully to every word without judgment. 

 

She let out all of the air that she had been holding in her lungs and continued. "That went on for a year and a half before I finally agreed to go see my sponsor, and it was all because of a dream that I had; my grandma was so disappointed and worried that I was going to die, she kept saying that I had to stop." This was the first time in a long time that Grace opened up to someone about her struggles and it made it easier for the words to come out when Lip looked at her like she was a person and not a broken doll. "When I woke up, I was in the hospital. Turns out I had passed out on my bathroom floor and my mom had found me and called an ambulance; they said I was unconscious for a little under three hours. I had severe dehydration along with a mile long list of other problems." She watched Lip take a cigarette out of the pack that had been sitting on the table before offering it to her. She declined with a wave of her hand and cleared her throat as he lit his own that was tucked between his lips. "So I did in-patient for ninety days and then out-patient for ninety days." She took a drink of the coffee that had now cooled to the perfect temperature. "By the time I graduated high school I had pulled myself together and was considered to be in remission." Lip nodded his head, letting out a puff of smoke from his lungs. "I was 394 days clean when I relapsed for the third time." The third time was the hardest one to talk about and maybe it was because it was recent or maybe just because she had tricked herself into thinking she was cured, either way she had to hide her shaking hands in her lap under the table. “I was just finishing up my freshman year here and it was the last party of the year and there was so many people around and everyone was drunk and stoned. I'm not sure how it happened, but I went into my dorm to lie down and the next thing I know my boyfriend at the time was there." Lip's sharp intake of breath caused her to stop, but only for moment. She wanted to get it all out so that they could move on and never have to come back to this dark side of her. "I kept telling him to leave and that I didn't want him there because I was fucked up and all I wanted to do was go to sleep, but he wouldn't listen, if it wasn't for Cece, he would have raped me." She decided to spare him the gritty details. He looked at her eyes wide. "Did you bash his fucking skull in?" His voice was hard and his face red. 

"She tried too, yeah, she picked up a text book and started to beat him in the back of the head, yelling at the top of her lungs until someone came on and called the police." 

“What happened to the prick?” He asked taking a long hit from his cigarette.

“Nothing really.” Grace shrugged. “Everyone said that he didn’t rape me so there wasn’t really anything that they could do, my parents threatened to sue and withdraw their donations to the school if they didn’t do something so they forced him to transfer to somewhere else and I have a restraining order, I haven’t seen him since.”

Lip narrowed his eyes at her, his cheeks tinted a red color. “That’s fucking bullshit, who is this guy so I can fucking bury him in my back yard?” 

Grace felt in her bones that he was serious and instead of frightening her, it made her feel protected and her trust for him grew even more. “It was so long ago Lip, I grieved and let it go.” She leaned forward, her elbows on the tabletop. “I can’t let that moment define who I am, I was consumed with the death of my grandmother and it almost killed me, then I was consumed with the ‘what if’s’ of that night and it almost killed me. I can’t live like that anymore.” She shook her head, her eyes staring into his. “I won’t survive another slip up, so I had to make the choice; live or die, and I choose to live.”

Lip stared at her for what felt like entirety, his icy blues peering into the depths of her soul. “That’s incredibly wise.”

Grace leaned back in the booth and chewed on the fry that was in her mouth. “Far from, but I’m trying.” She wanted to kiss him right then and there; lean over the table and press her stained lips to his, she knew that it could go wrong, but she didn’t care. Right when she opened her mouth to tell him what she was thinking, Fiona appeared next to the table.

“How was everything?” She asked, eyes set on Grace.

Grace returned the smile. “It was perfect, thank you. The coffee was the best coffee I think I’ve ever had.” She let out a soft chuckle. “How much do I owe you?”

Fiona shook her head, her hands on her thin hips. “Nothing, it’s on the house.” 

“Are you sure Fiona?” Lip spoke up, his wallet already in his hands. 

She nodded her head. “Positive, what else do you two have planned?” She knocked Lip’s wallet from his hands causing it to fall on the floor with a flop.

With a laugh Grace responded, “I was going to see if Lip wanted to watch some scary movies with me.” Her eyes flickered across the table to where Lip was now sitting back up straight after retrieving his wallet from the tiled floor. He nodded at her confirming that he would in deed like to come back to hers and she felt giddy.

“Sounds fun.” Fiona said. “Well I better get back to work, have fun and be careful.” She bent down and placed a kiss on top of Lip’s head. “Nice meeting you Grace.” She said at Grace before rushing off to help a drunk and needy customer.

“I have to run to the rest room then we can leave.” Lip said as he slip out of the booth. 

Grace nodded and watched him walk towards the men’s restroom. Once he was out of sight she grabbed a twenty from her bra and placed it under the coffee mug and stood up and slid on the leather jacket. 

Grace waited for Lip outside of the diner, the cool hair whipping through her hair. Grace felt happy. Happier than she had felt in a while and all she could think about was how thankful she was for Lip knocking her on her ass four days before. 

“Ready?” Lip stepped out into the fall air, a cigarette already posed between his lips.

“Ready.” Grace responded and looped her arm through his outstretched arm and they made their way down the sidewalk back towards campus.


End file.
